Sienna Miller: I was naughty and sabotaged my Hollywood career. I’m so lucky to have second chance

Sienna Miller says her bad behaviour away from the film set almost scuppered her chances of Hollywood success and that she very nearly “sabotaged” her own career.

In an interview with Esquire magazine, Miller, 32, admits she became more famous for her personal life as she came under intense scrutiny during her relationship with actor Jude Law in 2004.

Full interview appears in Esquire’s March issue, on sale from Thursday. Also available as a digital edition (Tom Craig and the Pictures as courtesy of Esquire)
She said of her public image: “It had become difficult for me to get the work I wanted, if I’m really honest. It was a weird situation to be in because there was a lot of goodwill for me in Hollywood.

“I think I’d been lucky in that I’d always been naughty in that town and people had always liked me for it. But I sabotaged things. I burnt a lot of bridges. I never read a review or paid any mind to what anyone said.

“And that translated to how I behaved outside work. On set, I was first to arrive, last to leave, best friends with the crew, totally professional, no dicking around. But when I wasn’t at work, I wasn’t behaving the way you should. I’m very lucky to have a second chance in that town.”

Sienna Miller and Tom Sturridge (Picture: Richard Young/REX)
Miller is engaged to actor Tom Sturridge and the pair had a daughter, Marlowe, in 2012. She described Sturridge as “the antithesis of me”, adding: “He’s the perfect balance to my lunacy, which makes him sound really boring but he’s not, at all. It’s good, it works.” She said she took time off from her career to focus on being a mother: “I felt like I had no control over any aspect of my life, professionally or personally. So I deliberately disappeared. I was sick of myself, to be honest, or sick of that perception of me. It all felt so f***ing dirty.”

Sienna Miller and Jude Law (Picture: Dave Benett)
Miller won £100,000 in damages in 2011 from the News Of The World for having her phone hacked, and later gave evidence in the Leveson inquiry. She said the hacking was “so personal, it’s such a raw nerve, it had such a massive effect on me.”

Her comments were made before Law, 41, yesterday told the NoW phone hacking trial at the Old Bailey — where the defendants all plead not guilty — how he confronted actor Daniel Craig on the phone about an alleged affair with Miller, which the newspaper reported in 2005.